Meta-Led Anti-Terrorism Group Faces Mass Resignation of Expert Advisers
Meta-Led Anti-Terrorism Group Faces Mass Resignation of Expert Advisers
Meta 主导的反恐组织面临专家顾问集体辞职
Six of the nine independent experts on the advisory board of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism—a consortium run by several of the biggest US tech companies—resigned on Monday, according to a letter seen by WIRED and interviews with four of the people. 据《连线》（WIRED）杂志查阅的一封信件以及对其中四位人士的采访显示，全球互联网反恐论坛（GIFCT）咨询委员会的九名独立专家中，有六人于周一辞职。该论坛由几家美国大型科技公司共同运营。
The tensions between the independent advisory committee and the GIFCT date back to an email the counterterrorism and free speech experts received in July from Meta’s Nell McCarthy, a vice president overseeing content policy. For years, the group had advised the GIFCT on how to prevent platforms from becoming havens for the radical organizations and individuals blamed for some of the world’s worst mass violence. 独立咨询委员会与 GIFCT 之间的紧张关系始于今年 7 月。当时，负责内容政策的 Meta 副总裁内尔·麦卡锡（Nell McCarthy）向这些反恐和言论自由专家发送了一封电子邮件。多年来，该小组一直就如何防止平台成为激进组织和个人的避风港向 GIFCT 提供建议，这些组织和个人被认为是世界上一些最严重的大规模暴力事件的幕后黑手。
But McCarthy wrote that while the consortium welcomed the experts’ insights on violent trends, it no longer desired their scrutiny on the effectiveness of Big Tech’s efforts to curtail violence. Meta and other leaders wanted to “refresh” the 6-year-old independent advisory committee the experts sat on, she wrote. Meta serves as chair of GIFCT’s operating board this year, giving it outsized influence over policy changes, though other companies on the panel must ultimately approve. 但麦卡锡在信中写道，虽然该联盟欢迎专家们对暴力趋势的见解，但不再需要他们对大型科技公司遏制暴力努力的有效性进行审查。她写道，Meta 和其他领导者希望“更新”这个已有 6 年历史的独立咨询委员会。Meta 今年担任 GIFCT 执行委员会主席，这使其对政策变革拥有巨大的影响力，尽管其他成员公司最终仍需批准这些变革。
New additions to the rotating advisory committee had previously been elected by current members; under the plan laid out in July, they would instead be picked by tech companies. The committee would be barred from weighing in on key topics such as the consortium’s performance and making recommendations together as a group. Its role as a watchdog would be neutered, advisers believed. 轮换咨询委员会的新成员此前由现任成员选举产生；根据 7 月份提出的计划，新成员将改由科技公司挑选。委员会将被禁止就联盟表现等关键议题发表意见，也无法以小组形式共同提出建议。顾问们认为，其作为监督机构的角色将被削弱。
In their resignation letter, the departing members of the committee wrote that their appeals against the plan had been “ignored” and that, in turn, they had “lost confidence in the GIFCT’s ability to deliver effectively on its founding mission” to prevent terrorists from exploiting online services. “We all know that a body that cannot scrutinise, take a position, or evaluate is not an advisory body at all,” the letter stated. “It is decoration and accountability theatre.” 在辞职信中，离任的委员会成员写道，他们反对该计划的呼吁被“无视”了，因此他们“对 GIFCT 有效履行其创始使命的能力失去了信心”，即防止恐怖分子利用在线服务。“我们都知道，一个不能进行审查、不能表明立场或进行评估的机构根本不是咨询机构，”信中写道，“这只是装饰品和问责表演。”
Meta deferred comment on the resignations to the GIFCT. An unsigned statement sent to WIRED by a GIFCT spokesperson on behalf of the consortium’s leadership and the Meta-chaired operating board says the proposed changes have been “informed by several rounds of feedback” and are not yet final. They came out of discussions on “how to more effectively engage civil society and governments for substantive input” as “multi-stakeholderism is a core principle” for the GIFCT. Meta 将有关辞职的评论推给了 GIFCT。GIFCT 发言人代表联盟领导层和 Meta 主持的执行委员会向《连线》发送了一份未署名声明，称拟议的变更“参考了多轮反馈”，且尚未最终确定。这些变更源于关于“如何更有效地让民间社会和政府参与实质性投入”的讨论，因为“多方利益相关者参与”是 GIFCT 的核心原则。
The consortium has about 35 members; other long-time board members include Microsoft and YouTube. A small staff alerts members to violent content, helps them exchange threat intelligence, and commissions research on countering extremism. While the coordination has helped some platforms combat problematic content, critics believe the group isn’t living up to its potential. 该联盟约有 35 名成员；其他长期董事会成员包括微软和 YouTube。一小部分工作人员负责向成员通报暴力内容，帮助他们交换威胁情报，并委托开展反极端主义研究。虽然这种协调帮助了一些平台打击问题内容，但批评人士认为该组织并未发挥其应有的潜力。
A WIRED investigation in 2024 uncovered several issues with GIFCT, including Meta delaying TikTok’s membership bid and poor relations between the companies at the helm and the unpaid independent advisory body. It also revealed failures in the tip-sharing database the consortium oversees to coordinate takedowns of problematic content. 《连线》2024 年的一项调查揭露了 GIFCT 的几个问题，包括 Meta 拖延 TikTok 的入会申请，以及掌舵公司与无薪独立咨询机构之间关系不佳。调查还揭露了该联盟负责协调删除问题内容的线索共享数据库存在缺陷。
The dismantling of the advisory group threatens to deteriorate the organization’s work further at a time when balancing free expression and online safety has become more challenging. Generative AI tools have simplified content creation but imposed limited guardrails. 在平衡言论自由与网络安全变得愈发困难之际，咨询小组的解体可能会进一步削弱该组织的工作。生成式人工智能工具简化了内容创作，但却设置了有限的护栏。
Extremist content, including some that is now AI-generated, that promotes organizations such as Islamic State remains a persistent issue. Newer nihilistic collectives have turned to AI-supported scams such as sexploitation to coerce young victims into carrying out violence and abuse. Several AI chatbots have been accused of facilitating violence. 宣传“伊斯兰国”等组织的极端主义内容（包括一些现在由人工智能生成的内容）仍然是一个持续存在的问题。一些新兴的虚无主义团体已转向人工智能支持的诈骗手段，例如性勒索，以胁迫年轻受害者实施暴力和虐待。一些人工智能聊天机器人也被指控助长了暴力行为。
“A Shame” “一种耻辱”
The experts who resigned include university researchers and representatives of civil society organizations. They had agreed with McCarthy on the need for changes to improve the results of the decade-old anti-terrorism consortium. But they believe the proposal, which could be finalized soon, amounts to a step backward. 辞职的专家包括大学研究人员和民间社会组织代表。他们曾同意麦卡锡的观点，即需要进行改革以改善这个成立十年的反恐联盟的成果。但他们认为，这项可能很快就会敲定的提案实际上是一种倒退。
“There won’t be critical voices raising concerns about what GIFCT is doing or is not doing,” one of the departing experts says. “It may seem politically convenient for them to abolish the independent advisory committee, but they are going to regret it in the longer term.” “将不会再有批评的声音对 GIFCT 的所作所为提出担忧，”其中一位离任专家表示，“废除独立咨询委员会对他们来说在政治上似乎很方便，但从长远来看，他们会后悔的。”
Another calls it “a shame” that the tech companies “instead of engaging and building better evaluation and transparency are pursuing a rollback of independence that was already weak to begin with.” 另一位专家称，科技公司“不去参与和建立更好的评估与透明度，反而追求削弱本已脆弱的独立性，这真是一种耻辱。”
Both of the people spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation from the Trump administration, which has denied visas to people it believes are working to unfairly censor online content, and Republicans in Congress, who have been investigating supposed censorship groups. While the GIFCT hasn’t been targeted, both it and an adviser’s organization were mentioned in a February report from the House Judiciary Committee. 这两位人士均要求匿名，因为担心遭到特朗普政府的报复（该政府曾拒绝向其认为致力于不公平审查在线内容的人发放签证），以及担心遭到一直在调查所谓审查团体的国会共和党人的报复。虽然 GIFCT 尚未成为目标，但它和一位顾问所在的组织都在众议院司法委员会二月份的一份报告中被提及。
In a meeting soon after, the advisory committee questioned consortium leaders, including from Meta, about their plans to operate in what appeared to be a fraught political environment for content moderation, according to two of the advisers present. The committee didn’t get clear answers, the people say, but got pushback for raising questions considered beyond its purview. About three months later came McCarthy’s July email. 据两位在场的顾问称，在随后的会议上，咨询委员会向包括 Meta 在内的联盟领导层询问了他们计划如何在内容审核面临严峻政治环境的情况下开展工作。他们表示，委员会没有得到明确的答案，反而因为提出了被认为超出其职权范围的问题而遭到抵制。大约三个月后，麦卡锡发出了那封 7 月份的电子邮件。
WIRED couldn’t immediately learn why four of the expert advisers did not join the others in resigning. The committee also includes representatives from the UN and a handful of governments such as Canada and the EU, and it’s unclear whether any of them will also exit. But last Friday, the entire panel of 17 members sent a letter, seen by WIRED, to McCarthy disagreeing with her plan to curtail their group’s independence and input. 《连线》未能立即获悉为何四位专家顾问没有随其他人一起辞职。该委员会还包括来自联合国以及加拿大和欧盟等少数政府的代表，目前尚不清楚他们中是否有人会退出。但上周五，由 17 名成员组成的整个小组向麦卡锡发送了一封《连线》查阅过的信件，表示不同意她削弱该小组独立性和投入的计划。